NEW RULES ARE NEEDED TO PROTECT NET NEUTRALITY: Throttling net traffic sets dangerous precedent

The NDP is calling on Industry Minister Jim Prentice to establish clear ground rules to limit the interference of telecommunication giants in consumer’s use of the internet. NDP spokesman for Copyright and Digital Issues, Charlie Angus, made the call following revelations that Bell Canada is throttling the ability of third party internet service providers (ISPs) to offer high bandwidth access to its consumers.

Angus says the federal government can’t sit idly by while Bell and other telecommunications giants are allowed to arbitrarily rewire the internet. Such moves, if unchecked, will have serious for Canada’s innovation agenda.

“Jim Prentice cannot turn a blind eye while the telecommunication companies decide which lanes of digital traffic will be deliberately filled with potholes. These actions have serious implications for Canada’s innovation agenda. Protecting net neutrality is a fundamental cornerstone in encouraging the development of a true knowledge economy.”

The move by Bell is being blamed for interfering with CBC’s attempts to use the innovative Bit Torrent (P2P) distribution of its show Canada’s Next Prime Minister.

“Who made Bell the owner of the Internet? Why should Bell be allowed to interfere with innovative new methods of distribution for television? Why should it be squeezing you off the bandwidth if you are downloading Google Maps, watching You Tube or using P2P to transmit high levels of data for your business?” 

Angus says the government will need to get serious about Net Neutrality because there are serious anti-competition issues that could develop if left unchecked.

“Jim Prentice is doing nothing while the basic ground rules for digital development are being arbitrarily rewritten in favour of the big companies. These companies will be in a position to squeeze out third party ISP competition. They will be in a position to slow down traffic to competing cable company offerings while speeding up traffic to their own sites. At the end of the day the consumer, who already pays enough for their internet access, is the one who will be getting ripped off.”